Summary
    Would you like to be able to characterise and qualify the raw materials in your cosmetic and pharmaceutical products? Find out more about their origins, crystallochemistry, morphology and stability? Remove all traces of foreign bodies that might come from the production lines? Analyse any packaging defects?

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    Would you like more information about this offer or would you like to use our services? Please contact our teams.

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    Automorphic rough rubies measuring 2 and 3 mm in diameter respectively, viewed under a binocular loupe (Sri Lanka, 2013).

    Automorphic rough rubies measuring 2 and 3 mm in diameter respectively, viewed under a binocular loupe (Sri Lanka, 2013).

    © BRGM - Delphine Bruyère

    Your issues and needs

    The quality and CSR requirements to be met by cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies sometimes involve specific analyses of mineral raw materials in order to demonstrate that they are both safe and compliant. These analyses demand a high level of expertise.

    Our added value

    BRGM has sixty years of experience in providing analyses and services of high technical added value and proven reliability in the field of geosciences and the environment. Through its cutting-edge analytical skills and platforms, it is able to develop new analytical techniques and protocols tailored specifically to your needs in order to:

    • Characterise the physico-chemistry of the mineral raw materials in products made by manufacturers or subcontractors, whether these materials are of natural or synthetic origin (powders, amorphous silica, nanoparticles).
    • Trace the origin of the mineral raw materials by isotope or mineral characterisation of major and trace elements (e.g. for gold, pigments, beads, etc.).
    • Determine the origin of any foreign bodies present in products, either from the production line or from the raw materials.
    • Understand the causes of any packaging defects on the bottle (visual defects, corrosion, etc.).
    Purple eye shadow under the scanning electron microscope (SEM).

    Purple eye shadow under the scanning electron microscope (SEM).

    © BRGM - Guillaume Wille

    Tools and platforms

    BRGM provides an extensive and innovative range of analytical capabilities dedicated to the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries:

    • Microscopy and microanalysis:
      • light microscopy,
      • SEM scanning electron microscopy (imaging of morphology, topography, chemical composition and crystallography),
      • SEM-Raman,
      • cryo-microscopy (biological samples, pastes, etc.),
      • EDS (chemical microanalysis),
      • EBSD (crystallography),
      • electron microprobe,
      • high-resolution analytical TEM/STEM.
    • Infrared spectroscopy (reflection and transmission, field effect silica concentration).
    • X-ray diffraction (qualitative and quantitative analysis, XRD of clay, controlled atmosphere and temperature experiments).
    • Chemical analysis (FluoX, ICP-MS).
    • BET specific surface area analysis, particle size analysis (laser granulometry).
    • Thermal analysis: ATG, DSC.
    • µ-tomography.
    • Isotope platform.

    Accreditation

    BRGM’s laboratories are ISO 17025 accredited by COFRAC.

    To find out more

    References

    A prospecting team at one of the identified outcrops (Maripasoula, March 2022)
    Reference, completed project
    Characterisation of hard rock deposits at Maripasoula in French Guiana
    4 April 2024
    Quilici Tomb in the Bonifacio coastal cemetery, made entirely of marble from Carrara, Italy, 2022
    Reference, completed project
    Characterising the stone materials used to build some of Corsica’s remarkable funerary monuments
    27 October 2023
    Taking samples from the surface layer of a 100-year old technosoil
    Reference, completed project
    ReCon Soil: developing sustainable soils from construction waste
    5 September 2023
    All the references

    Solutions

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    Contact us

    Would you like more information about this offer or would you like to use our services? Fill in this contact form. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
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